RSS volunteers to take forward pro-CAA campaign
January 21,2020Even as the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is intensifying its campaign to
clear misunderstandings over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has now stepped in to assist in the
campaign by enlisting over 30,000 volunteers to distribute pamphlets
containing details about the law.
The Lok Jagran Manch, an
RSS-backed organization, has come up with a pamphlet carrying pictures
of minor Hindu girls allegedly abducted, sexually abused and converted
in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to put forth a strong case in
favour of the citizenship law.
The coloured pamphlet explains the
need for CAA, claiming that Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians
and Parsis, on the other side of the borders, are facing atrocities
after partition and continuously fleeing to India for the past 70 years.
The
pamphlets which bear a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi cite his views that
every Hindu and Sikh residing in Pakistan could always come to India if
they do not wish to live in Pakistan.
"Then providing jobs to
them and making their life normal would be the first duty of the Indian
government," it said claiming that Gandhi expressed these views during a
prayer meeting held on September 26, 1947.
The rear side of the
pamphlet has five passport size photographs of minor Hindu girls aged
between 12 to 17 years who have been abducted and abused in these
neighbouring countries.
The pamphlet claims that on an average,
every day, a Hindu girl is being kidnapped in Sindh province of Pakistan
and after which they are forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim
man. It says that some of these girls are as young as eight years.
Referring
to the recent incident of Nankana Sahib in Punjab province of Pakistan,
the pamphlet points out that 19-year-old daughter of a 'granthi' was
kidnapped at gunpoint on August 28, 2019.
The pamphlet also
points out the decreasing count of Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and
Bangladesh, grabbing of temples and lands of Hindus to prove its point.
The
pamphlet distribution is being carried out by volunteers including
those associated with pro-RSS organisations including Bhartiya Janata
Party, BJP's Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Lok Jagran Manch (LJM), Akhil Bhartiya
Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP), Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini.
The RSS
cadre plans to distribute these pamphlets in awareness programme for
the CAA down to the villages and development blocks of Uttar Pradesh.
"We
are fully backing the public awareness initiative. As many as 60 lakh
of these pamphlets have been printed for distribution in UP alone at a
rate of over 10 lakh for each of the six 'prants' in which the state is
divided by BJP and RSS," said a senior RSS functionary.
Besides
the pamphlet, two booklets on misinformation and doubts have also been
printed on CAA and are being distributed among the opinion-makers and
community leaders.
BJP media in-charge of Kashi Prant, Mrityunjay
Tiwari, said the anti-CAA protests were politically motivated and the
RSS and the BJP, along with affiliated and sister organizations,
including ABVP, Akhil Bhartiya Adhivakta Sangh, Seva Bharti etc, were
all working together under the banner of Lok Jagran Manch.
The new citizenship law has triggered nationwide protests and clashes with police that have led to 23 deaths across the country.